Amerikan Gestapo

By David Beck-Brown

"Amerikan Gestapo" is a collection of musings on topics ranging from the militarization
of American police to the desecration of the Bill of Rights.

Shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, I had the opportunity to host two Russian
nationals through a program sponsored by the Library of Congress. The morning she left
for home, Tatiana, a University of Moscow professor, spoke these departing words:
"David, fall to your knees daily and kiss the Constitution. It's the only document
separating your country from all other nations." Unlike many Americans today, Tatiana
understood the Bill of Rights, by design, protects us from becoming a Police State,
stipulates vital checks and balances between our Judicial, Executive and Legislative
branches, guarantees our fragile liberties, and as such requires no revision.

Die Gestapo
The term Gestapo, short for Geheimne Staats Polizei (Secret State Police), was first used
in 1934 Nazi Germany to denote a fanatical police organization employed to use terrorist
tactics against individuals suspected of disloyalty. When the Gestapo wrongfully pursued
dissidents, it showed no mercy. Once targeted, homes were destroyed and occupants
trucked away to unknown locations.

Seventy years after the fall of Hitler's regime, any United States citizen who cares about
the Constitution, must question recent and ongoing events occurring on American soil,
reminiscent of die Fuhrer's mindset. Police have become militarized. Law-abiding
citizens are the targets. Who's calling the shots now?

From Sea to Shining Sea
When police respond, innocents are often killed. Paramilitary police units, or Special
Weapons And Tactics (SWAT) teams, perform 80,000 raids per year, a stark increase
from approximately 3,000 in 1980.

Arizona: Jose Guerena, a Marine aged 26, with no criminal record, awoke to
flash-bang grenades blasting in his back yard. After securing his wife and 4-yearold-
son in a closet, he grabbed his AR-15 rifle. A five-member SWAT team fired
at least 71 rounds toward him in less than seven seconds. Jose was shot 22 times
and died. Although investigators later found Guerena had never disengaged his
rifle's safety, it was concluded "the use of deadly force by the SWAT team was
reasonable and justified under the law."

California: a surveillance camera caught Kelly Thomas, a mentally disabled
homeless man, as he was beaten and pistol-whipped by cops on a street corner,
ultimately ending his life.

North Carolina: Parents called the police to assist them with their non-violent 18-
year-old schizophrenic son, who was shot by the police. Afterwards the father
said, "We called for help and they killed my son in cold blood."

Washington D.C: Nearly three dozen armed SWAT agents in full tactical gear
held financial advisor Mark Witaschek and his family at gun point. Mr.
Witaschek's "crime" was possession of a box of black powder and a spent brass
shell. Washington D.C's stringent gun laws target any part of a bullet as
ammunition, whether it's an inoperative casing, propellant, a primer, or a
projectile. Mr. Witaschek gave the following statement after his arrest: "I am
more afraid of what the government is doing than I am of any of the people I
encountered when I spent the night in jail."

The Big House
The United States of America (USA) incarcerates a greater percentage of our population
than any other nation. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, "If recent
incarceration rates remain unchanged, an estimated one out of every fifteen persons will
serve time in a prison during their lifetime." Lengthy prison sentences do not improve
public safety. However, life sentences have more than quadrupled since 1984 and
continue to grow at a startling pace. The tendency toward stronger sentencing began
during the late 1970's due to the passage of more stringent crime laws.

Prisons are well-funded schools for the criminally inclined. Lessons learned inside are
comparable to a Master's degree in Criminal Justice, including the material contained in
the San Quentin publication The Anatomy of a Set-Up. Few people realize hits can be
arranged from inside prison. Yearly, hundreds of cell phones are smuggled into prisons
and used for narcotics deals or to buy alcohol, prostitutes and even weapons. Need
protection? Need to orchestrate a vengeance kill? For the right price, it can be instigated
from the inside out.

The Netherlands, Sweden and Germany have lower incarceration rates than the USA,
mainly because low-level criminals remain free to pay restitution to their victims. These
countries continue to close penal facilities due to declining recidivism rates. In 1981, I
toured a Dutch maximum-security prison. The environment was less hostile than our
prisons. Most noticeable was the absence of the stress-invoking jailhouse din that
permeates our institutions.

Here, incarceration is not about rehabilitation or public safety. It's about preserving
California's 10 billion dollar Corrections budget. We're not only continuing to build new
prisons, we're adding beds to the ones we already have. In 1980, California had twelve
State lock-ups with an inmate population of 22,500. In 2009, the prison system had
ballooned to an inmate population of 172,000, all housed in 33 prisons statewide, most of
which were built during the mid 1980's smack dab in the agriculture belt of the Central
Valley. In the early 2000's, a Federal lawsuit mandated then Governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger to address the issue of prison overcrowding. His solution? Ship 10,000
California inmates to private prisons in neighboring states after receiving an anonymous
$250,000 campaign donation. Follow the money. He won't be back.

A new trend is to house inmates in 'for-profit' prisons contracted by the State. These
privatized prisons demand inmate populations kept at 90% to full capacity. If the inmate
population drops, the corporations will sue the State for breach of contract. Consider the
conundrum. If crime rates have consistently dropped since 1992, why are California
lawmakers predicting our prison population will rise by 2020? Then consider who will
be sleeping in these corporate beds. Watch your back.

Snitches & Rats
Informants incarcerated in the Federal Witness Protection Program (FWPP) are valuable
tools for law enforcement. They are not nice people. They hate one another, hate
themselves and hate life. They are the Criminal Informants (CIs), commonly known in
the joint as snitches and rats. Loyalty is not their strong point, to one another, to their
families and often to themselves. Forbidden from communicating with anyone from their
past, they receive no visitors.

To be admitted into the FWPP, CIs must have a supporter in Congress and can only
qualify once they've admitted to their crimes. One CI was purported to have confessed to
so many brutal murders, his interrogator stopped debriefing him to read him his Miranda
Rights, per Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) protocol at the time. Some rats have
to learn how to shut their traps. He was accepted into the program.

Worthy CIs are given a new name and a new address. Some have been known to go so
far as to undergo plastic surgery for a new face. A reliable CI can never return to his old
hood. A vengeful grudge cuts deeper than a scalpel.

A case manager whose assignment was to create new identities for CIs once shared why
she had left the program. One morning her supervisor, in a state of panic, contacted her.
He needed to tell her face-to-face. The remnants of her co-worker had been discovered
still hog-tied on the railroad tracks following the passage of a speeding train. Message
received. The horror of the incident caused her to experience a rare medical condition
wherein shock causes the inability to physically speak for several months. In other
words, she remained silent. Funny how the body reacts when it chooses to survive.

When recruited as an educator to the FWPP, my supervisor advised me personally not to
accept the assignment. He warned me CIs would kill their own mothers and were the
"worst of the worse," lower on the criminal totem pole than child molesters. He informed
me if I were to eliminate one, I'd be a rich man. Mob bosses pay millions for offing a CI.
My training was direct and honest.

I often worked alone with male CIs. I kept them busy and distracted by any means of
creativity ~ writing, painting, drawing, poetry ~ often with no guard in sight. For the
protection of my "students" and myself from the general population, we were secluded in
an undisclosed location of the institution. Ordinary criminals hated the CIs.

To get to their housing unit, I took an elevator, passed through multiple security checks,
and signed three legal ledgers while passing under several mounted cameras. One
correctional officer, armed only with the rings on his fingers, was assigned to the
informants' quarters where I worked. A wall mounted alarm button was on the far side
of the room. Few officers could pass the government background check required to work
with the CIs. A disturbance would have been long over by the time back up could arrive.
Inside the program, my safety was in the hands of the CIs. I was no one's "bitch", but I
knew the critical value of choosing my "friends" wisely, in order to survive the dynamics
of a prison subculture. The boys referred to me as "Dudley-do-Right." I had earned my
prison handle. A right of passage. An understanding that inmates run prisons.

To obtain my clearance, I had to document all of my past activities and travels. Upon
passing the background check, I was assigned an FBI number. Only then was I able to
begin working within the "Briar Patch."

Inmates in the program gossiped about one another. One story circulated about an
enforcer (an individual within a criminal organization designated as a hit-man) whose
code name was Scorpio. Drunk on Jack Daniels while skinning a woman alive, his
partner, unable to handle the task, convulsed and released her. She survived. Her report
to the authorities led to Scorpio's arrest. Even a psychopath can be flipped. Scorpio
became a CI to save his own skin. His testimony was vital in crippling two notorious
crime organizations and neutralizing a possible gang war between the two. Years after
leaving the program, Scorpio found me through an on-line search. He sent me a Youtube
video of him reading poetry. I thought, "What is he thinking? He's a wanted man."
He told me, "I'm not afraid anymore. I'm getting old." He wanted me to write his life
story. "Dudley-do-Right" reminded him of his brother.

Andrew Gramby Hanley was another CI in my program. Hanley used his real name as a
CI. He and his father intimidated Nevada businessmen, killing over 50 people and
burying their bodies in desert graves on the outskirts of Las Vegas. The Hanley's stories
are told in Vegas Rag Doll, a book written by Joe Schoenmann & Wendy Mazaros. As an
informant, Hanley told me he never revealed meaningful information. He said there are
more bodies buried in the desert than one can imagine. Hanley had a hand-made poster
on his cell wall, asking the question, "Can you keep a secret?" He often tried to get the
best of me. Scorpio, however, wouldn't let him. Scorpio said he'd take care of any
inmate who threatened me, if I were to smuggle in a peanut butter and cream cheese
sandwich for him. He knew I wouldn't do it. However, when he posed the "deal" in front
of Hanley, while smiling and locking his gaze, Hanley quickly left the area. Mutual
respect. Hanley later told me Scorpio would practice martial arts at night, in a slow and
haunting manner.

G-Men
When the FBI was established in 1908, agents were not authorized to carry guns. The
federal government allowed field agents to pack heat, including machine guns during J.
Edgar Hoover's administration; however firearms' training was poor. During
Prohibition, when Hoover's G-Men were pursuing the first most wanted fugitive, John
Dillinger, they murdered several innocent men leaving a bar. The men, who had been
drinking, had heard noises from the parking lot. As they left the establishment through
the front door, they were greeted by a barrage of gunfire from federal agents, who had
missed the memo that Dillinger and his boys had slipped out the back.

As with most government crimes, no charges were filed against Hoover or his
subordinates. To get away with murder, cops commonly say, "I feared for my
life." Unfortunately, the protection of government criminals continues to this day.

Ruby Ridge
The most well-known cabin siege on American soil happened at Ruby Ridge, Idaho in
1992 when law enforcement officials showed no restraint with their militarized police
force. A former Marine, Randy Weaver had moved his growing family to an isolated
area in northern Idaho. With his military training, Weaver was familiar with gun laws.
Neighbors help one another in close-knit, rural communities. So when a neighbor asked
Weaver to modify his shotgun by shortening the barrel, Weaver refused. He knew
illegal, sawed-off shotguns could be used to spray a wider range of pellets in close
quarters. The neighbor persisted. Eventually Weaver gave in. Consequently, Weaver
was charged with possession of an illegal firearm. Turns out Weaver's 'neighbor' had
been working for the FBI.

After Weaver missed his court date, sharpshooters were summoned to his property by
ground and by air, via two Air Force C-130s. Weaver defended himself and his family
per his Second Amendment rights. The aftermath of the raid resulted in the death of the
family dog, Weaver's 14-year-old son and his wife, who was shot from a helicopter while
sequestered inside the cabin. Weaver survived. Later, courts awarded him a $3.1 million
wrongful death settlement.

Waco
The most well known compound siege on American soil happened in Waco, Texas, one
year after Ruby Ridge. This time the FBI got it right. Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
(ATF) agents, however, failed from the get go. The ATF had initiated the siege on the
Branch Davidian compound for suspicion of weapons' violations. Davidian leader David
Koresh, however, had been tipped off about the siege, so he and his followers were
prepared to confront their arrivals. After the ATF fired the first shot, resulting in return
gunfire by the Davidians, the FBI took control of the fiasco, resulting in a 51-day
standoff.

FBI agents followed protocol to (1) isolate (2) contain and (3) negotiate with hostages on
the basis that it was better to wear them out over the long haul, and persuade them to
surrender, than subject them to an attack. However, survivors who escaped the
compound gave reports of dead bodies, stagnating human waste, dead rats and body parts
floating in thigh deep water inside the building. Since children were inside, the FBI
made a judgment call and decided to use an M60 tank to knock a hole through the wall,
providing those trapped inside with an escape route. What happened next indicates the
Davidians were prepared to frame the Feds for culpability. In response to the M60
deployment, cult members poured flammable liquid inside the compound, set the liquid
afire and the strong Texas winds that day finished the job. Sifting through the ashes, the
body count rose to seventy-six. Twenty-one had been children.

Unlike the actions at Ruby Ridge, the FBI showed restraint at Waco. Unlike J. Edgar
Hoover, who used the news media to his advantage, the FBI director in 1993, William S.
Sessions, would not allow agents to speak publicly about any investigation. This policy
led the public to believe the FBI had conducted itself unprofessionally at Waco. Yes,
mistakes were made. However, for a long time thereafter, respectable FBI agents bore the
ridicule and condemnation of the news media and the public it influences. The FBI took
the heat for the ATF at Waco. They may have won the battle, but they lost the war of
public opinion. Three months after Waco, Sessions became the only FBI director in the
history of the organization to be dismissed from his post, by then President Bill Clinton.

No charges were filed against any of the law enforcement officials involved with the
killings at Ruby Ridge or Waco. All were exonerated. In fact, many were promoted.
Case in point: Has San Diego County Sheriff William Gore's participation in Ruby
Ridge harmed his career? Here's the real question. Rather than firing Sessions, if law
enforcement officials involved in both sieges had been individually held accountable,
could Timothy McVeigh's actions in Oklahoma have been prevented? Both incidents
became his motivation to blow up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building with a fertilizer
truck bomb in 1995, on the second anniversary of Waco. Nineteen of the victims were
children attending daycare in the building, their parents having just left to start their 9 to
5 jobs. Could these children's lives have been spared along with those who died in
Waco? We will never know. McVeigh's life certainly wasn't spared, and rightfully so.

Big Bear
One thousand miles due south of Ruby Ridge (as the crow flies), and twenty-two years
later, former Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officer Christopher Dorner made
headlines for his version of a cabin stand-off. This time, however, the 'bad guy' wasn't
holed up in one location with loaded firearms. Dorner drove through multiple counties
on his rampage, triggering a statewide Amber Alert. His arsenal included the guns
former cops are allowed to own post duty. More dangerous, however, Dorner was armed
with the stealth, knowledge and training that comes from being a cop.

Dorner's rampage was based on his belief that the LAPD had wronged him. His
grievance pertained to growing frustration over top brass' failure to clear his name
following a departmental incident. Dorner had followed protocol and exhausted all
Internal Affairs proceedings. Clean character is more important to cops than a polished
badge. Smearing one's name in the criminal world can get you killed. Apparently in
Dorner's case, hell hath no fury like a pig scorned. He began his revenge by committing
a double homicide in Los Angeles. One victim was an attorney connected to his case.

Dorner included the following statement in his lengthy manifesto published on-line: "The LAPD has not changed since the Rodney King days, in fact it has gotten worse.
The only thing that has evolved is the participants have been promoted to supervisors,
commanders and executives. The question is what can you do to clear your name?" He
also stated in his manifesto he knew that he would be poorly portrayed in the public eye.

At the conclusion of his killing spree, Dorner isolated himself in a secluded cabin near
Big Bear Lake with representatives from multiple law enforcement agencies surrounding
him. No escape. By the time of his death, sections of the cabin had been destroyed by
heavy equipment. With Big Bear outside the boundaries enforced by the LAPD,
instructions were given for them not to participate. LAPD ignored the order. Dorner,
after all, was one of their own. They brought their SWAT team in by helicopter, using
ropes to lower the team. The weather forecast for that night was below freezing, which
would have assured Dorner's death by morning, since he lay mortally wounded.
However, in a grand use of force and after banning the media, law enforcement set off
combustion bombs, engulfing the cabin in flames. Forever silenced, Dorner's story will
never be fully told.

Fast & Furious
With incidents involving law enforcement officials and firearms on the rise, here's a
question: Who's monitoring the guns? In other words, who's stirring the alphabet soup
pot of 3-letter agencies in D.C.? (a) The ATF (b) The DEA (c) The DOJ or (d) All of the
above. Answer: (d) If the concept of too many chefs in the kitchen seems ludicrous
when it comes to lethal weapons, look no deeper than the recent government sting known
as Fast & Furious.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) spearheaded the operation by targeting federally
licensed firearms dealers who would be willing to provide inventory to undercover ATF
agents. The agents would then, unbeknownst to the dealers, sell the guns to drug
trafficking organizations. The goal was to track the flow of firearms into the hands of
cartels. Over 3,000 guns were purchased and distributed on both sides of the border. The
result? The recipients killed innocent Mexican and American citizens, as well as two
federal agents. In California, a state with some of the strictest gun laws in the nation,
dealers declined to participate in Fast & Furious. With strong noses for sniffing out setups,
they knew 'straw deal' transactions, particularly with firearms, are illegal in any
state. However, several Arizona dealers fell for the trap, a mistake they will regret
forever. It remains to be seen if the man in charge of this lethal faux pas, Attorney
General Eric Holder, feels the same.

Deep Cover
Federal agents, in black ball caps adorned with the bold, yellow letters of their identifying
agency, can be intimidating. At least they're overt. The ones to watch out for are the
ones who flash no badges.

In the fall of 2012, an undercover DEA agent shot and killed a Chula Vista mother of five
who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Her name was Valeria. My contacts in
law enforcement informed me the agent, in plainclothes, approached Valeria as she was
trying to drive away from an alleged drug house where she lived. The agent, there to
serve a warrant at the house, shot at her while standing squarely in front of her car. He
didn't stop shooting. Instead, he jumped onto the hood and fired a second magazine
through the windshield.

A standard magazine holds 10 bullets with one in the chamber, but law enforcement
usually has 46 rounds at their disposal. Later, referring to Valeria, the agent said he
"feared for his life." The media spun the story and stated only a few shots were fired,
apparently ignoring the glaring evidence of countable bullet holes in the still-shot of the
windshield. Law enforcement officials often twist news stories to manipulate the public.
The truth is Valeria is no longer with us to tell us how much she feared for her life.
Could she be in the program?

Police Hot Stop: It Could Happen to You
I was enjoying a quiet lunch on June 4, 2009 with a disabled teacher of the deaf, Sharon
Bair. It was a difficult time for Sharon as she was in the process of losing her home after
being laid off from her job. Her husband, my co-worker at the Richard J. Donovan
Correctional Facility (RJD), had died from a stress-related heart attack two years prior. I
was her witness when Sharon discussed legal matters. Her Real Estate attorney had
cancelled her appointment that day so we took a lunch break in Little Italy. While
walking, we noticed a discarded object leaning against a planter box. The piece of flat
yellow metal was not roped off.

Sharon knew I collected found objects from the streets for my art installations. Inner city
residences often place discarded objects on sidewalks for others to utilize. Sharon asked
me if I wanted the yellow thing, to which I replied, "Of course." While I left to get my
car, Sharon stood by the object. Together we picked it up and placed it in the hatchback
of my compact hybrid Honda. At the time I was on temporary disability, recovering from
arm surgery, a torn ligament and a broken leg, which required me to walk with a
medically prescribed, aluminum cane. The latter two injuries occurred on the grounds of
RJD.

While driving away, I became aware of a man driving recklessly behind me. After
stopping at the curb to let him pass, the man sped up, pulled over in front of me and
backed his pick-up truck into my car, concealing his back license plate. The impact left
an impression of his tow-bar in my bumper. We thought we were being carjacked. The
driver rushed to my door, reached through the open window and tried to grab my keys
from the ignition. I pushed him away while still harnessed in my safety belt. Again, and
again he opened my door grabbing for my keys. I forced him back. Then he began
yelling, "He has a gun!" which was a lie. I was unarmed. To counteract my assailant, I
pulled at the door handle so hard it ripped off. Sharon was tugging at my shirt from the
passenger seat fearing the man would hurt me if I got out of the car. The man wanted the
object we had picked up, so I said, "Take it!" and popped the trunk. He took it. But his
rage didn't quell.

I used my cane from inside the car to jab at the man (whom I now call 'the thug') with
non-lethal blows to his upper chest and shoulder area, based on Prison 101 training.
Since the tower guards are the only armed staff, I learned alternative ways to maintain
control during volatile situations. If circumstances escalated, we were to focus on nonlethal
tactics for resolution. Without this training and with my adrenaline high, I could
have killed the thug. But I didn't. Instead I seized the opportunity to execute a James
Bond departure. I drove the hell away.

Sharon implored me to drive straight to police headquarters. The problem was we didn't
know where it was. I drove the speed limit and obeyed all traffic signals trying to find
the station. San Diego doesn't post signs for police stations. Apparently the locations of
the library and horse shows are more important. En route, Sharon called 411 to ask for
directions. Once connected to the SDPD, however, she was placed on hold. Too late.
Across the street from our destination we became victims of what we later learned is
called a Hot Stop.

The streets looked like a parking lot of black and white squad cars. More than a dozen
guns were aimed at us. A helicopter hovered overhead. We were sitting before a firing
squad as we heard the ch-ch-ch of ratcheting firearms. A Glock was pointed sideways at
Sharon's head, 'gangsta style.' Neither of us had been told why we had been stopped, nor
were we read our Miranda Rights. We were cuffed. My car and Sharon's purse were
searched without permission and I was charged with three violent crimes worthy of 25
years to Life in prison: (1) Assault with a Deadly Weapon (for my aluminum cane) (2)
Industrial Robbery (for the found object) and (3) a Weapon's Charge (for an imaginary
gun). Sharon? She was let go, a puzzling decision. If my 'crimes' were so bad, she
should have been charged as accomplice. Letting a teacher go was their first mistake.
Falsely arresting an artist was their second. The first thing Sharon said after my release
was, "Draw his picture. Now."

I spent the night in County jail on a cold, concrete floor with no blanket or toilet paper. It
took seventeen hours to process me. My bail was $130,000. Yet no charges were filed?
Something was up. I had and have no criminal record. I had and have an FBI number.
My car license plates qualify me for DMV confidentiality based on my employment at
RJD. I had worked in the criminal justice system for over three decades. Why was I
being framed?

I tried to get my bail money back by first going through my bondsman, who told me I had
to go through the City. The City told me to go through the DA and the DA told me to go
back to King Stahlman. No one had the answer to what seemed like a no-brainer: "Why
should I shell out $130,000 with no charges filed and no arraignment?"

The driver of the pick-up truck, whom Internal Affairs later claimed was the foreman of a
construction company, knew too much. All signs indicated he was an undercover agent.
(1) He said I had a gun, which automatically generates a weapons charge even if it's not
true. (2) He inflated the monetary value of the yellow object, which bumped that charge
from a misdemeanor to a felony. (3) He knew engaging in the hot pursuit of a fleeing
suspect is one of the few circumstances when cops can search without a warrant. (4) He
seemed to be calling the shots through the female Detective who led my interrogation.
She railroaded me by dismissing obvious indications of my innocence, including
Sharon's testimony. The thug told her I had hit him in the mouth, but my knuckles were
clean. This should have been enough to prove him a liar. She showed me a photograph
of the thug's torso. No face. Exposing an undercover cop's ID would nullify his worth in
the field. We believe the thug had a personal investment in keeping us from reaching
headquarters. His cover would have been blown had we reported him.

After receiving a threatening voicemail from an anonymous male caller, I met with the
FBI. The agent said, "He sounds like a cop." Maybe now he'll be held accountable.
Today I carry a copy of the Constitution in my back pocket. I know my rights. Consider
doing the same.

Policing the Police
Our experience with the police Hot Stop has lead me and Sharon to seek justice by
attending monthly meetings of the San Diego Citizen's Review Board on Police Practices
(CRB). We have given presentations to the Board during public meetings since March
2010, the month we filed our claim. Thus far, the Board has rejected our complaint by
finding all officers involved not liable for misconduct. One reason may be the police
reports we were able to obtain contained typographical errors and glaring, false
statements.

Nothing can justify Christopher Dorner's rampage, but on some level I understand the
frustration he must have felt. Unsatisfied with the CRB's conclusion, I spoke with two
former members who told me the Board is a rubber stamp for law enforcement. When
we began attending Board meetings, members were ridden roughshod by the SDPD
Internal Affairs Department (IA) and the City Attorney's representative, the latter of
whom would frequently interrupt citizens in the public forum, a gross violation of the
Brown Act.

As Nationally Certified Range Safety Officers (RSOs), We know guns can
unintentionally fire. Firearms' training emphasizes never point a gun at anything you
don't intend to destroy. Therefore, for all intents and purposes, on the day of the Hot
Stop, the SDPD was ready to destroy us.

The CRB does not have political over-sight over the police and as such has no power.
Law enforcement is protected by a myriad of policies, including the wealthy Peace
Officers Association (POA), the California Peace Officers Bill of Rights (POBR), City
Charters and the public's perceptions. The bottom line is law enforcement has greater
rights than civilians. The difference between Christopher Dorner and me is I uphold the
law and I follow procedures. No matter how painstakingly slow the process may be, it
must be respected.

Code Blue"When it comes to integrity, standards should not be compromised. There should be a
bright line that you simply don't cross. You don't make false statements. You do not lie.
You do not give false testimony. If you do, you will not be employed."~ Buck Revell, former FBI Asst. Deputy Director

The Code of Silence is a mindset within an organization that causes members to lie or
withhold vital information due to the threat of being branded a traitor. Police are known
to have a well-developed 'Blue Code of Silence.' Classic examples include the Irish-
American precincts of Boston and the climate within the New York Police Department
(NYPD) as depicted in the movie Serpico.

A New York Times commentary written by Michelle Alexander, the author of "The New
Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the age of Colorblindness," elaborates on why police
lie under oath. "Everyone knows you have to be crazy to accuse the police of lying. The
odds of a jury believing your word over a police officer's are slim to none. The police
shouldn't be trusted any more than any other witness, perhaps less so." A former San
Francisco Police commissioner wrote an article in The San Francisco Chronicle stating
police culture treats lying as a norm.

In 2011, the NYPD dismissed hundreds of drug cases after it was proven police had
mishandled key evidence. Jeannette Rucker, Chief of Arraignments in the Bronx,
claimed police officers had provided false written statements, lied in their depositions and
given false testimony. Judges, especially the ones who can be bought, tend to rule in
favor of police officers. Many DEA cases have been linked to federally funded task
forces eager to keep the cash coming.

Aware of the magnitude a weapons charge can pack, such as PC 417(c) or a PC 245(a),
beat cops are known to add them to an arrest charge to ensure a collar sticks.

Up until last year, the local POA published a monthly column in their newsletter titled the
'Ipso Facto Files.' Ipso Facto translated from Latin means 'by the fact itself.' The
phrase is used to convey the idea that something, which has been done contrary to the
law, is void. The column was pulled from publication after Sharon brought its content to
the attention of the Executive Director of the CRB. The final column gave insider police
information on how a suspect can be detained, arrested and potentially convicted despite
having no criminal record. Additional tips included how to use a suspect's website and
Facebook page to make them appear more dangerous or to depict them as lacking in
character.

There's a difference between justice and a conviction. From my experience, police seek
convictions, not justice.

Up in Arms
On September 30, 2013 the Supreme Court ruled the Second Amendment provides
Americans a fundamental right to bear arms and as such cannot be violated by State and
local statute. The lawsuit had been filed to protest Chicago's gun laws. As stated by
Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., the court ruled, "It is clear the framers counted the right to
keep and bear arms among those fundamental rights necessary to our system of ordered
liberty."

In a study conducted by The Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, the findings on
the effects of restrictive gun laws were surprising in that the conclusion failed to find any
gun control initiative that works. In countries where guns are banned, shooting deaths
have risen. Luxemburg, which bans all guns, has a murder rate nine times higher than
Germany, which allows limited guns. Yet Austria, where guns are not banned, has the
lowest murder rate of any industrialized country. That'd be Glock country.

Gun violence and murder rates rose in the European Union (EU) when gun control was
enacted. According to the FBI, violent crimes with guns during this same time period
dropped in the USA. The FBI also concluded violence associated with guns in the USA
is at a twenty year low.

Arming citizens is known to save lives. Unfortunately, the stories that telling how mass
shootings are thwarted rarely make the news. For example in Pearl River, Mississippi, a
16-year-old middle school student was stopped from killing fellow students when
Assistant Principal Joel Myrick retrieved his .45 caliber handgun from his car. This isn't
the first time guns have prevented massacres we'll never read about. As is the case in all
school shootings, the Pearl River boy chose his school for a 'soft target'. Until educators
see the connection between folks who want to harm others with guns and their current
Zero Tolerance policies, a 'gun free zone' will continue to be a kill zone.

Not only does law enforcement have more legal rights than the average citizen, they have
more equipment and have more powerful firearms. In Utah alone, 62 police agencies
signed up for the White House 1033 (WH1033) program, which allocated $4.2 billion
dollars worth of surplus military equipment, from blankets to grenade launchers, to local
law enforcement agencies. Whether or not the intent of WH1033 was to militarize our
police, that is what has happened. An additional $502 million dollars was allocated by
WH1033 in 2011. The New Hampshire police force, along with other police departments
around the nation, applied to purchase armored vehicles for $250,000 a pop. The
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) intends to use their recently acquired 15-ton
tanks, and other war surplus armament, to fight against 'domestic terrorism.' Shipping
military vehicles back to the USA from the Middle East often costs as much as it did to
manufacture them. Military equipment allocated in WH1033 includes thermal imaging
devices and other items never considered, let alone appropriate, for domestic use. To his
credit, the mayor of Boston vetoed the purchase of 33 AR-15 military rifles at a cost of
$2,500 each, stating "arming beat cops with high-powered rifles is counterproductive to
establishing trust with residents."

Law enforcement officers often target practice with some 1,500 rounds before reporting
to work. The Federal Government is currently stockpiling over 2 billion bullets and
2,700 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) tanks and bulks of full body riot gear.
If DHS's jurisdiction is within our borders, as opposed to overseas, why are billions of
bullets needed for use on American soil? What are they preparing for?

The availability of ammunition to the public has become scarce. According to the Editor
of BearingArms.com, our current shortage of bullets can be traced back to 1997 when a
North Hollywood shootout proved the perps outgunned the cops. Since then, government
agencies began stockpiling ammunition. Fears of gun control grew when Obama was
elected president in 2008, adding to the stress of the market as gun purchases
skyrocketed. One-half of U.S. households legally own guns and gun owners are
purchasing ammo at an alarming rate. California will soon require individual bullet
registration. What are we preparing for?

We the People
Since having my Constitutional rights violated, I now have a greater appreciation of the
Bill of Rights and the Constitution in its entirety. I understand why Benjamin Franklin
cried when he signed it. He was proud of what our budding nation had accomplished.

Without political checks and balances, any of our three government branches could gain
unprecedented powers. Law enforcement needs civilian oversight. My goal remains to
effect change for the common good by exercising my Ninth amendment rights. How far
are you willing to go?

David Beck-Brown is retired from the California Department of Corrections &
Rehabilitation. He has worked at State, County and Federal lock-ups, including the
Federal Witness Protection Program.